Review: Crowne Plaza Beijing Wangfujing

Finally doing my last piece of hotel review of my last holiday trip. My last holiday destination before returning to Brunei was Beijing whereby both Sister and I took the bullet train from Tianjin. Took the taxi from the train station to the hotel. Sister chose Crowne Plaza Beijing Wangfujing so that it will be convenient for us to do shopping and sightseeing.

Both Sister and I were disappointed when we entered the room assigned to us. I think I was more disappointed than she was. I was expecting a better room compared to the one that we had since it is a Crowne Plaza Hotel. The hotel lobby and walkway looked good and well maintained so we expected the same for the room too. Turned out that we were all wrong. The lobby and walkways were just refurbished recently.

We requested for a room change under the reasoning that the room assigned to us were below our expectations. You may think that both of us were unreasonable but it was quite bad for a Crowne Plaza Hotel. Even Sister admitted to the receptionist that the other Crowne Plaza Hotel she had stayed in was far better than this.

The kind receptionist apologetically told us that this was the first Crowne Plaza Hotel in China or Asia (can’t remember well) and it was established in 1998. Hence, it looked a lot older and rundown compared to the other Crowne Plaza.

Pictures were taken of the first room which we were assigned to. But the changed room was not much difference compared to the first one but slightly newer in look.

The look of the room from our room entrance

Verdict: Apart from the room condition, there were still a couple of plus points though. The room was big and spacious enough to navigate around. Three pin sockets extension was provided in the room so no need to worry about not having a universal adapter with you while on holiday. Complimentary WiFi was provided but no access to banned social media platforms though.

Bed was comfortable in my opinion but the pillows were too soft for my liking. I resorted to using the sofa pillow but covered with a piece of towel. We didn’t dare to sit on the sofa provided as it was covered with some stains. Even if we had to, we would cover the sofa with towels before sitting on it. Bathroom came with a bathtub instead of a shower cubicle. All I remembered was that the power shower was not strong enough.

Location wise, it was good as it is located in within Wangfujing. Beijing apm was merely five minutes walk from the hotel entrance and The Forbidden City was approximately 15 to 20 minutes walk.

No problem on finding eateries too as there are a couple good ones in the area. As you all know, Beijing is famous for their Peking Duck. There are two highly recommended ones in the area. But I could only remember one, which was the one which Sister and I went to – 北京大董烤鸭店.